Each year Great Valley Academy 4th grade students participate in the Sutter's Fort State Historic Park's Environmental Living Program. This popular program allows students to spend 24 hours (including overnight!) at Sutter’s Fort. While there, they portray 1840’s characters and partake in period activities, such as carpentry, baking and candle-making.
The mission of the Sutter's Fort Environmental Studies Program is to create an actual living history experience for children. The students, by looking at the past, can gather information about history, culture, and diversity to give them a better understanding of the interdependency of themselves and the environment.
The goal is for students to develop awareness of, appreciation for, and understanding of past social and natural environments as well as their present environment.
Students will:
1. Practice problem solving while dealing with the tasks of living at the Fort.
2. Project themselves into the past while providing for their own needs in this historical setting.
3. Accept and act out a role related to another time period.
4. Recognize, practice, and appreciate interdependency among themselves and their environment while meeting individual and group needs.
5. Participate in hands-on activities creating various products of the past while meeting immediate needs.
6. Develop an understanding of and appreciation for the historical period and setting of Sutter's Fort.
7. Enhance the site by their presence and contribution:
a. Provide for the preservation of historical artifacts, techniques, and skills through their activities.
b. Creatively interpret historical events.
8. Practice basic learning skills including writing, language, and arithmetic skills as well as craft and thinking skills.
